Michael Shelley to me looks like Robert Plant. That's My Michael. Robert Plant if he had brown eyes.
For many years, (over five years by now) I've been quietly sharing this headcanon with lots of people and I'm super stoked whenever I show them these damn pictures and they go "OH! That actually makes a ton of sense"
So, without further ado. Behold:
Like, TELL ME THIS DOESN'T LOOK LIKE HIM (also, go watch this interview and try to convince me his weirdo sideways smile that kinda crawls up the side of his face isn't Michael Distortion enough too)
I will admit I have way better pictures on my phone and an external hard drive, but for now bear with these. I may reblog with additions at some point (I have so many pictures of this man. You have no idea how many pictures of this man. Say a number, you will be wrong).
Bonus Gerry FC below (Kelly Nickels). Yes, I've been saying this one for years too.
Alright, I've been way too hush hush about this out of my own anxiety but I'm trying to get over that.
I've decided to share my version of Michael Shelley (and maybe eventually my version of Gerry Keay) so I can maybe lose the anxiety of my own writing and get back into it, as well as post some fics I have in the back-burner.
Below is an introduction on how this came to be. (Basically, me playing with how little we know about him as a person and filling in the massive gaps. I'm playing with dolls, babeyyyyy. And bear in mind, a lot of these are also kind of projection and/or self-indulgence)
This will be a series of text posts where I'll go into different details and aspects of him. Personality, looks, backstory, relationships, etc! If at any point you have questions, feel free to ask them!
Faceclaim
What's wrong with him (some speech stuff and psychological stuff) [tbp]
Queer and aromantic [tbp]
Family [tbp]
Background [tbp]
So, for context: I spent about a year over-analysing the way he talked and using said analysis for homework and stuff at uni. And that kinda spiraled (no pun intended) in me dragging out a lot of information from those few seconds in which he talks (And some from how the Distortion talks only when it's Michael).
This started with speech patterns, then psychological traits based on speech patterns, and it kept going and going. Of course, no trait is an absolute, a lot of it is pseudoscience and/or assumptions based on patterns and coincidences, but itsn't it fun to disect speech quirks?
It made me want to expand on it. I've been working on this for several years, and I tried putting bits and pieces in my fics but I was very afraid of the fandom Not Liking It that I refrained from adding a lot of it. Especially because My Michael greatly differs from fandom view of the character in many points. Historically, the fandom has had quite a few times where I've seriously considered dropping everything bc of how heinous some people are but that's a completely different point I may or may not talk about some day.
Props to @eyeball-jam who's encouraged me to share these because they think my Michael and Gerry are neat and so I can post the fics of my blorbos with their OCs.
But I also acknowledge he's literally a csa victim who has fawn response.
I like Thomas a lot bc he's, to me at least, a good example of fawn response and a male CSA victim, a male COCSA victim at that, that people gloss over so much.
But I don't.
He was under 12 when it all started. We literally get told by McMichael that Lucille killed their mother when Thomas was 12, and then Lucille mentions that their mother had found out what they had been doing. He was a child.
He will do anything to placate Lucille, and be quick to respond to her to avoid anything to happen to others, often vocally interrupting, and staying quiet otherwise to avoid being seen as defiant.
We see this whenever Lucille tries to impose herself on Edith with him present, or when he strays from the script.
He also contains himself so much and genuinely seems like he's scared of kissing Edith without Lucille's approval, or in a way that's "too much and Lucille will not like".
He was a child still when it started. And Lucille, in a way, was too. But she still did that to him. So many people point out their relationship, yet I never see anybody talk about how Thomas was coerced into it.
Getting into Gotham (thanks @eyeball-jam !!!!) and I think we should get the fucking Blues Brothers involved in Penguin's club's entertainment. For funsies, you know?
They'd drive Oswald up the wall but still somehow get a secured spot every week or at least every month.
I mean, the way they played a nearly whole show with a full pack of Illinois police chasing them? And acknowledged and thanked them for coming to the show while on stage when they sang Everybody Needs Somebody To Love? Bold but funny as fuck.
Hi, hey, I burned myself badly recently and got 2nd degree burns (again, this is a common occurrence due to my disability). And that got me thinking, and then realising:
Gerry Keay wouldn't have burn scars. Or, if he had any, they'd be barely visible at all.
The statement where he's at the hospital literally says they're 2nd degree burns.
I was prepared for some deeply unpleasant scenes when the call came in, as bad burns can be some of the nastiest injuries you see working in a hospital. These ones surprised me. They were second-degree, which is severe, but not usually such as to require hospitalisation, except that they appeared to cover his entire body. Every inch of exposed skin showed signs of this burning and, cutting away his clothes, it became apparent that the damage had spread there as well.
Source: MAG012: First Aid
Gerry would've just had swelling and blistering, moving and clothes in general would be a bitch, all that for a few months, and then that'd be done. I am going to rewrite so many of my drafts now omg... That man would not have that skin texture.
DISCLAIMER: Please, do not piss on the poor. I am not making it to tell you "the correct way to draw/write him", btw. I just realised he had the burn type that I have extensive experience with and went "oh, interesting! I'll incorporate this to my way of depicting him"
Btw, I prommy I'll continue my Michael Shelley lore dumps. I unfortunately have been having this horrible thing called an overworking job with bare minimum pay, and the main deal is that I do a whole lot of extra work that I don't get paid for, but if I don't do it I get fired. Pretty cool.
Anyway, he's gonna be Explored, I promise! (And then I'll get to Gerry. OOOOO I have an old post in my drafts I wanna revisit about him so bad)
